Paul Daley to return to EliteXC on Sept. 20

In a new interview with MMAWeekly.com, welterweight Paul Daley has revealed he will return to the United States and compete for EliteXC during the promotion’s Sept. 20 event in Albuquerque, N.M. The event will be televised on SHOWTIME.

“I will be fighting Sept. 20 in New Mexico, most likely against an undefeated ex-IFL fighter who cannot be named yet,” Daley is quoted as telling MMA Weekly. “I’m really looking forward to it.”

While FiveOuncesOfPain.com has yet to receive official confirmation, we have strong reason to believe that the fighter best fitting Daley’s description is top-level East Coast welterweight prospect Lyman Good.

Good trains out of Tiger Schulmann’s MMA and is a perfect 7-0, according to Sherdog’s fight finder. He competed for the IFL during the undercard of its team semifinals in August of 2007, defeating Mike Dolce from the seventh season of “The Ultimate Fighter” via unanimous decision.

However, it should be noted that as this article went to press, Good was not under contract to ProElite.

Soon after defeating Sammy Morgan during a ShoXC event on Jan. 25, Daley abruptly announced his retirement and stated his intention of fighting one final bout. He had been tentatively scheduled to fight during the undercard of Strikeforce and EliteXC’s co-promotion on March 29 that featured Cung Le vs. Frank Shamrock, but Daley was pulled off the card following his retirement proclamation.

Daley had held titles with Cage Rage, FX-3, and King of the Ring but relinquished all of them at the time of his retirement. However, his retirement was short-lived and he recently returned during a Cage Warriors card on July 12, where he knocked out Bojan Kosednar at 4:53 of round 1.

Lethal, have you ever seen Lyman good? He is excellent and has a ton of upside. Heleno has great jiu-jitsu but Daley’s strength is his Muay Thai. Good has a striking background and will stand with Daley. I’m think it has a chance to be a great fight.